Originally, I had planned to do this comic in straight black and white only (line art). It being primarily a comedy comic book, this seemed to be the going standard, and would make up for a lot of lost time.
I was also afraid that if I made the artwork too nice, it would distract from the comedic content of the comic; I’ve found that the books that I find the funniest, have plain black and white art, and it is all terribly drawn – I even tend to think that the horrible art contributes well to the comedy.
I would note that influence here, however, I do not think using the term “horrible art” with someone else’s name would be very wise in the legal sense.
Inversely, Roman Dirge’s Lenore, a fantastic piece of comedy is shaded and often colored, as is Eric Adams‘ Lackluster World – a wonderful comedic drama.
So, I decided to shade a page or two, and after seeing them, I’ve decided to do the whole book. It makes one hell of a difference, too much of one for me to not do it or to only partially do it.
I am currently shading at a rate of about 2-3 pages per day, and currently just shy of page 14 (the end point for my preview). If I keep working at this rate taking one day per week to do other things, I should have the entire thing ready for the press by the 24th, just a week shy of my absolute latest acceptable date, meaning I can start shipping just before Halloween.
When the preview goes up, presale will be available, though my first focus is getting copies out to all those people who took a part in my last promotional offer.
Look for a preview to be available in the next two days, I will post details here, or you can bookmark someghoulswanderbymistake.com or (shorter) sgwbm.com (You can also add me on livejournal or on myspace).